How do you begin your work emails?
Do you go with a simple Hey?
Or are you into formal greetings like Good afternoon?
or Salutation, right, trusty, and well-beloved friend?
Or are you one of those absolute animals that juststartswith no foreplay at all?
How about the closing?
Are you one of those annoying, Thank you in advance people?
Or are you more like, Byeeeeee?
Back in the pre-computer days, this wouldnt be a question.
Anything else would mark you as a communist or beatnik.
Then email hit the scene.
At first, it was widely used for informal work communicationserious business-y business was still put down on paper.
Email is in a gray-area.
This leaves everyone free to start and end emails however they want.
But we still judge each other for the choices we make.
Hi, Gary is reassuring in a work context.
Hi, Gary says, Were all in this together.
It gets your attention, but in a worrisome way.
It reads like someone in authority wrote it and theres something serious coming next.
They should have been filed on Tuesday.
Hey without a name is the least-used email greeting, and for good reason.
Its what you say to someone youre frustrated with.
Kind regards is at the bottom of the list, with only 16% of people having used it.
It sounds formal, old-fashioned, and oddly personal.
Its jarring in the context of a work email.
41% of respondents report ending work emails with thanks in advance.
This one can seem passive-aggressive, like an order couched as courtesy.
Thats how readers-of-emails tend to see it, too.
Thanks in advance is rated as the third most savage sign-off, according to the survey.
Some co-workers are minimalist, get-down-to-business types.
For them, greetings and endings are time wastes.
A name with a colonalwayssends a message, no matter who writes it.
An email that starts Gary: is not going to end with, Were giving you a raise.
Theyre fine in texts and or Google Teams, but in work emails, they come off as childish.
Weirdly, people are more likely to approve of emojis in work emails than exclamation points.
Forty-eight percent of respondents report that they re-read emails and remove exclamation points.
But 25%addexclamation points.
Are you an adder or a subtracter?
Im an adderand I hate it.
It seems more friendly to write I really enjoyed Garys retirement party!
Instead of I really enjoyed Garys retirement party.
But while Im doing it, Im thinking, This isnt how exclamation pointswork.
